Avrae
by Lara1221
Summary: A dragon who keeps to herself, Avrae, watches on Louis Weasley, who has been sent to Romania to get a little lesson in respect from his Uncle Charlie.


**Disclaimer:** not mine.

 **Thank** **you** so much to Lucy (My Dear Professor McGonagall) for beta-ing!

 **A/N:** So for this round of ql we had to write from the point of view of a creature. I chose the dragon, and there were so many directions you could go with it. In the end, I decided to go with Charlie, and send Louis there too because he's a rebel and I haven't written enough of either of them. I hope it's not too mundane; I tried to give the dragon some subtle depth and hopefully draw some sort of line where she is a logical animal but still with animalistic instincts. And hopefully, give her some relation to humans. Two other things: I took quite a few liberties with the nature of Charlie's job, and first person is not a thing I do often. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it :) **Written for:**

 **qls4r4: catapults' beater:** write about a creature (dragon), optional prompts 11. "do you really need to do that?" and 13. "i'll survive, i always do." **; cinema comp ii: finding nemo:** any sort of creature

* * *

Avrae

There was the bang of a pebble hitting the earth—a tinkling tapping as it rolled on the rocky terrain—and then a soft noise as it stopped in the grass.

"Do you really need to do that?"

I felt my snout twitch in annoyance, and I took a short breath. The temperature around me went up as my cave filled with the exhaled smoke. What did a dragon have to do to get a good night's sleep? Why must we be able to hear the ramblings of humans hundreds of clouds away?

"Did you really need to do that?" It was a different voice, repeating the first's concern in a mocking tone. "Uncle Charlie, it's sleeping. Look at it."

 _It._ I huffed in annoyance again. Who was this idiotic human? I raised my neck to poke my head out of the cave and looked towards the top of the hill. It was the brawny, fire-headed dragon keeper; they all thought they had such great control over us. Fools. Just because you don't taste good doesn't mean we don't want to eat you, I thought. It would certainly be much quieter without this one around. His companion was taller but certainly much younger, and his hair was so shiny that it reflected the sun painfully into my eyes; I retreated back into the cave.

" _It_ is named Avrae, and you'd be an idiot to do that again, Louis Weasley." I'm not sure I like the name, but at least the dragon keepers weren't foolish in this regard. They know that our power is not something to mess with. "I'm not afraid to hand you back to Fleur in pieces, you know. She can't scare me anymore than Avrae."

"Whatever. I've been tempted to chop myself up listening to Maman blabber on anyway. I don't understand how Dad hasn't killed himself yet."

It is so strange to me that humans allow their young safekeeping until old age. I left the nest at just two winters and I haven't seen my mother since. My son, too, left my nest many winters ago.

I heard the dragon keeper laugh. "I'm sure Bill would just love it if you questioned his domesticated lifestyle. Merlin knows he's gotten enough shit from me about it."

"He deserves it! All that crazy woman talks about is making sure we do well enough in class to not ruin her perfect image, and he doesn't say a word about it."

That's probably what this kid needs; he clearly couldn't care less if I burned him to ash.

"Louis, that's not true. They both come to all your Quidditch games."

"Well then they clearly don't pay enough attention to know I don't need good grades. Those scouts are there to see _me_ play."

"You're not even doing that badly in class—"

"Yeah, because I can't fail if I want to stay on the team."

"—And you're putting in absolutely no effort."

"I'm just good like that."

Skies above, I could hear the charm in his voice from my cave in the valley. There was something off about that boy.

His Uncle Charlie was certainly not charmed. "Of course," he drawled. "And does your natural goodness come through in everything you do? I can tell from those detentions your teachers just adore you, and I'm sure your string of breakups has nothing to do with the fact that you're an absolute prick."

I decided I was liking this dragon keeper more and more.

"Why should I take advice about girls from you?"

"You could ask Professor Davies."

"Ugh!"

"Lou, be honest with me. Is there anything you really give a crap about?"

"Vic, Dom, Molly, and this insanely fit girl in Care of Magical Creatures. Charlie, she won't even look at me. Why would she do that?"

I wondered what it would be like to know others of my kind inthe way these two knew each other. We dragons can communicate, but more often than not, we choose not to; the solitary life is the one we all choose to lead.

"Because apparently, she's a very smart girl. Anyway, Bill told me not to send you back until you stop making a nuisance of yourself to everyone who talks to you, especially your professors. So, while you're here, you're going to be in charge of Avrae. Nothing like taking care of a life-threatening creature to make you less of a bastard."

"What?"

 _What?_

"You're going to study her just as I do, make note of any changes, and learn to have a little respect for people that don't want anything to do with you."

There was silence, and then another pebble landed with a bang, just a neck length away from my snout. This kid was playing with fire. I reached out my neck and pointed my nose in his direction, breathing enough fire to make him jump.

"Don't worry, she's friendly," Charlie added with a laugh. "Or, as friendly as a dragon can be. People fly their brooms up and down the Danube and she doesn't disturb them, and she won't disturb you as long as you leave her be."

 _Wise words,_ I thought to myself irritably.

"Can you handle that?"

"I'll survive. I always do."

Charlie laughed at the bold statement once again, a laugh that said he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Neither could I.

* * *

They came back every day for seven suns and seven moons. The chatter grew increasingly annoying, especially when for so long the dragon keepers that had come before have worked in silence. I took my flights and hunted for food, but this cave was my home. It had taken me a long time to find one, and I wasn't going to let some young, insignificant human drive me out of it, no matter how annoying he might be.

I was not disturbed, though, and for that I was grateful.

But the next sunrise was different.

It was barely light and the moon was still in the sky. First, I heard a _whoosh_. It was a rush of air that hit my face and fluttered my wings. In the next moment there was a splash of water; someone was disturbing the river. I reached my head out of my cave to investigate, just as something whizzed by.

I took off into flight at once, flying after it faster than I could think, the whip of my wings giving me satisfying pushes forward. I was fast, but the flying menace was faster, and I blew as much fire as I could towards it. It dodged my first jet of flames, but I issued another and another as it bolted this way and that. I beat my wings faster than I had in many winters.

It was exhilarating.

I couldn't tell if the flying thing, now obscured by darkness, longed to tease me or to escape, but it flew as fast and as agilely as it could. I breathed fire again, and I knew at once that I had hit it. It couldn't find its course anymore, and it was losing speed enough for me to make out the blur.

It was Louis; I was on the verge of breathing fire again when my wings started to feel strangely heavy; I knew the feeling—they had used it on me before. The magic made me slow down just enough for Louis to escape.

I wasn't sure that I had wanted to kill him; it was instinct, that's all. But I hoped that he wouldn't come near me again. I breathed a surge of fire in his direction for good measure, but kept my distance as I hovered, watching the dragon keepers catch up to Louis.

Charlie grabbed Louis tight. "What were you thinking? Do you know how dangerous that was?" I could hear his concern and anger. "Do you know what they would do to Avrae if she had burned you?" The concern was still in his voice. It made me feel lighter than the heavy magic. How could creatures of a different kind care more than your own?

I could hear the tremble in Louis' voice when he finally spoke. "I…I don't know. I just wanted to go for a fly. She had been so relaxed, I thought…just a story to tell, you know? Merlin, those are some beautiful powers."

I couldn't decide if I was tired of being spoken of in such a tone: admiration, yet always mingled with fear.

"Thank you, Uncle Charlie," Louis said. "I don't know what I…I'm glad I'm here."

"I'm glad you're here, too."

"I'm—I'm going to Floo Maman. I need to talk to her."

And then, suddenly, I wished that I could talk to my mother, too.


End file.
